FILM REVIEW: Flight (15)

Published:17:00Sunday 03 February 2013

Denzel Washington soars to career highs in Robert Zemeckis’s emotionally wrought character study of an airplane pilot wrestling with alcohol dependency.

Underpinned by John Gatins’s intelligent script, Flight is a provocative drama that refuses to cast judgment on the central character as he repeats past mistakes and attempts to dodge the repercussions of his reckless actions.

Instead, Zemeckis’s film accompanies the pilot on a turbulent journey of self-discovery as a major mechanical failure in the air puts his boozy lifestyle under the microscope of public scrutiny.

Zemeckis orchestrates these intense scenes with brio but he is equally interested in quieter moments when Whip wrestles with his guilt and attempts to resist the temptations of a hotel mini bar.

Washington is riveting as a man in authority who can barely function without liquor.

He lays bare Whip’s insecurities and doesn’t resort once to currying our sympathy.

Reilly impresses in a pivotal supporting role and Goodman injects humour as the supplier who knows the perfect cocktail of narcotics to counteract a hangover.

Climactic scenes are gripping and we buckle up for a bumpy ride as Whip prepares to deliver sworn testimony at the public hearing, potentially glossing over the facts to restore a sheen to his stained reputation.